A Loving Father [DVD] [2002]

A father and his estranged son hit the road under less than ideal circumstances in Jacob Berger's 2002 film A Loving Father. Famed novelist Leo Shepherd (Gérard Depardieu) has just been notified, via his daughter Virginia (Sylvie Testud), that he is to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His son Paul (Guillaume Depardieu) also learns of his father's good fortune and attempts to call with his congratulations -- adulations that fall on deaf ears due to a falling out Paul had with his father several years previously. Leo, rather rashly, mounts a motorcycle to make the journey northward from his remote domicile in Switzerland to Sweden to collect the prize, against the advice of his family and close advisors. Paul, still wishing to connect with his father, attempts to catch up with him on the road -- doing so at the scene of an accident that Leo has barely managed to survive. Paul stows his dazed father into his car and sets out to find a hospital. Leo, ever the curmudgeon, strongly denies any need for the hospital and insists he be let on his way, forcing Paul to harness his father to the back seat of his car. Now provided with the opportunity to reach out to his father, Paul continues the voyage his father started and the two are forced to reconcile their differences along the way. A Loving Father was screened at the 2002 Locarno International Film Festival.